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Properties constructed without a building licence issued by the respective Town Halls will always be illegal until they have been legalised, if it is possible, under the existing laws.

Properties built with a building licence issued by the Town Hall should be legal.
Surely this is why purchasers use the professional services of lawyers and Notarios to ensure that there are no illegalities with their properties when they buy.

Retrospectively cancelling building licences, as is happening now, will not encourage people to buy in Spain.

The biggest loser in the long run will be Spain.
One million expats spending on average 1,000 euros a month will not be easy to replace in the economy of Spain.

Good point, Dennis. That’s a lot of money. And the whole planning and building licence issue is a total fiasco.
Fortunately, however, in some areas the locals have realised how much the investment by northern Europeans in the local economy (property purchase, car, shopping, employment, tax, etc) has improved their lot overall. And as a result relations between locals and immigrants are very good. Many small villages that were crumbling rural backwaters 20 years ago are now spruced up and thriving.
By the way, just signing on the padron brings 2000 euros a head per year to your local council (so why not do it today – it takes about 10 minutes, if that, and costs nothing!)

@ALAN: And Julian Muñoz, the ex-mayor of Marbella, after doing his stint in prison for authorising those builds is now treated as a celebrity. He charges a fortune for appearing on chat shows (‘programas de corazón’) and has been allowed to keep most of his ill-gotten gains. It’s not really much to dissuade similar-minded mayors from doing the same, is it?!

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“The best English newspaper in southern Spain,” according to the Rough Guide. The Olive Press is the English language newspaper for Andalucia. Local news from Costa del Sol and inland Andalucia plus national news from around Spain. A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge and growing expatriate community in southern Spain – 230,000 copies distributed monthly (160,000 digital impressions) with an estimated readership, including the website, of more than 500,000 people a month.